Unaccompanied Foreign Minors in Italy: Problems, Contradictions and Social Inequalities.

Abstract

In recent years, in Italy, the interest in Unaccompanied Foreign Minors has increased, also because the number of migrant arrivals has increased . The theme has activated several debates and policies to manage emergencies and to reply to the needs of children . In 2016, the minors who arrived on Italian coasts were 24 .929 . Sicily is the main region that hosts migrants and where 40,9% of the Unaccompanied Foreign Minors are present . The analysis proposes a reflection on the difficulties encountered by minors in the new country and on the contradictions that come from the different meaning that age, as a conceptual category and as the organizational principle of society, has for the social actors involved . I’m going to present the first results of an exploratory research aimed at the perception of age and relationship with the roles associated with it . Ages have different significance in different phases of life and assume different connotations when compared with cultures . Furthermore, I’ll analyze other aspects because in the stories there are many sense elements and number of barriers: • separation from the family of origin; • need/desire to elaborate detachment; • to remember the sense of the migration as a need not as a choice; • to learn new language; • integration in reception center for immigrants; • academic inclusion.